With all due respect, most women tend to overplay things that their husbands haven't experienced themselves(i.e. pregnancy is always a safe bet). They milk it for all its worth. Its in their handbook of evilness to prey on our ignorance. be aware.

LOL Words of wisdom JSW.

Dude, I just had a bat in our house a couple days ago. I smacked it onto the floor twice before I caught it in a little net my kids have for butterflies. Now I'm a little freaked thinking it could have bitten me. We've been in our house about 9 years, and this is like the 5th bat. Cannot figure out how the heck he got in. Good luck with the shots.

SkaBob wrote:So yeah...bat bite... starting rabies treatment later today. Any of you been through it? I gotta admit I'm a little (ok a lot) scared about it, and could use some reassurance as to my chances and what the treatment is like...

So how did the first series of shots go?

"I do believe the sum extent of the messiness, disarrangement, disorder, and dirtiness of your room is equal to that of your brain." Johnny Cash

I went to one hospital near work, in the interests of saving time. It's in a different county, but I was told by my home county that shouldn't be a problem.

The doc was OK giving me the shots...but they have to approve with their county first. Well, Oakland County has a set of guidelines COMPLETELY SEPARATE from the federal guidelines, and decided they'd let me die rather than give me some shots my insurance would pay for.

So, back across town to the closest hospital in my county, and in for shots...

I'll admit, I'm a very nervous person...even after my first batch of shots I'm still nervous about whether or not they'll work...That's just how I am.. I had one of those upbringings that didn't let me have the "invincible" phase that most kids have, because my parents were constantly freaking out about how bad I was going to hurt myself doing anything (funny, considering they've been pretty callous ever since, when I'm concerned about things like...oh...getting bit by a bat). So I was all sorts of nervous when I went in, both about rabies, the shots, their side effects, etc...

So I get the first vaccine shot into the wound, and I get a chuckle. It's a 3cc shot into my thigh muscle, and there's this 1/2" tall bump where the fluid's at...it looked like that dude who got the breast implants for his tatoo!

Then I got one smaller shot of immunoglobulin (antibodies from people already immunized, to help fight the virus while my immune system makes some of it's own) shot in the arm, no biggie...tetanus shots are worse than any of these (in my case) btw...the only thing that was uncomfortable was a bunch of 3cc bumps of fluid in my muscles, really..

So after the arm shot, two more big ones in each leg. After the second one I got really woozy...I mean REALLY woozy...I told the nurse lady I needed a break. I was dizzy, and when I tried to stand up my vision got a bit dim, and I got the strongest (and, frankly, neatest heh) pins and needles feeling all down my arms and in my face...so they hooked me up to oxygen and prepped what they needed in case I was having a reaction.

Well, I was just trying to faint...so that passed, and I got 2 more big ones in my glutes - by far the easiest of the bunch...

All said and done I was in that ER/room for like 5 1/2 hours, but they were busy (3rd shift at the only hospital in Michigan's "thumb" area). The nurse and doctory lady were really great, and understanding about how nervous I was.

3 more visits, which are apparently only 1 shot each...then all should be well.

I can't help but be a little nervous though...my back's got all sorts of pinched nerves in it, which causes all sorts of little twitches and such sometimes...every time I feel a new one in an odd spot, I get a little (ok sometimes a lot) paranoid about whether it's my back or rabies, but I'm trying to be comforted by what my Mom's cousin said. She used to be a guide in Mammoth Caves national park, and still works with people that're around bats all the time, and says not only should it be pretty unlikely that it was a rabid bat, but that there's usually at least 2 weeks before it's super critical to get the vaccine.

That said, the doctor at the first hospital said it can start showing in a couple days...which makes me wonder how serious it is if it does, because a lot (read- all) of the info on the 'net says "if symptoms show up, you're dead, period."

So...we'll see what we see. All I can do now is try to remain calm, go in for the rest of my shots, get my dioxycycline (antibiotic) scrip filled and take all of that.

Well there was a bat in our house the other night. I think it flew from the attic to our bedroom nicely passing through my one year olds room in the process. Lets just say we are now having family shot night for the next couple of weeks. I am not sure if anyone was bitten but they said with young children not to risk it. Anyways Monday night I got 6 shots. Not to bad. 4 more shots to go. Yeah. Nothing better than getting shots for a one year old and a 3 year old.

"I do believe the sum extent of the messiness, disarrangement, disorder, and dirtiness of your room is equal to that of your brain." Johnny Cash